Who's Who

Long ago lived two men in the country,
So different, in contracts held. Here and elsewhere,
One a warrior, all his life on the battlefield,
The other a fisherman, a life on the waterfront.
Waves of navies and watery armies, the warrior fought against,
To get his prized catch. None escaped his net.
However skilled or lacking in, none escaped for long.
Sword and shield and hooked spear he held,
To kill his prey, the ultimate predator that he was.
In the dark, he walked among abandoned carcasses,
Of once lively fighters. While he made love to his woman,
His weapons lay along the side, metal and wood welded to one.

The fisherman’s life was not so easy. He lived from day to day.
Struggling from dawn till dusk against forces,
Forces that wanted to bury him in a watery grave.
His job was not traditional either; he had to fish
On land and drop his catch into the river.
He worked in tandem with the blind boatman who took the load off.
Drifting along the Styx out to sea, to see a thousand ships set off.
Warrior or fisherman, contracts in contrast. One fighting
For the fish he killed, other for the kill he fished.
One a life so anonymous he was forgotten before he could forget,
The other a legend to know, long after he was no more.
Who to be? The fishing warrior or the fighting fisherman?